“Shut up, Mar,” Jasper said.

“Just answer, please,” I said, my eyes fixed on the end of the hallway, watching for the mind-controlled soldiers. “Gilpatrick set me up with a bunch of new soldiers I don’t know that he can somehow vouch for, he insisted on them, and he sent me into a situation that was liable to get messy. It doesn’t make sense unless I somehow imagine I’m being set up to fail.”

“Fuck me,” Mar said.

“It’s not really setup,” Jasper said. “Gilpatrick explained before I left.”

I nodded to myself.

“They wanted to make sure you could be trusted. They thought they’d stick you with some objective observers for three, four routine jobs, make sure you stuck to the rules, grade you, leave it at that.”

Objective. I looked at Mar.

Yeah. Right.

“And if I didn’t accept the job? If I’d told Gilpatrick I didn’t want to do this patrol?”

“He really thought you would,” Jasper said. “He told me that. He was a bit stuck, caught between superiors saying he had to make you or he couldn’t keep you on, and thinking you wouldn’t. Then you said yes.”

I frowned. One impulse. One spur-of-the-moment decision.

Cause and effect. Every time I acted on impulse, bad things happened. Some of the worst things had happened. People around me got hurt. I got hurt. Two years in the hospital.

It was so much of why I’d wanted to slow down.

“I’m pretty fucking glad you said yes,” Jasper said. “If it had been me in charge here I’m pretty sure most of us would be dead already.”

I exhaled. Deep breaths. I couldn’t fall into the mindset of dwelling on the past.

“You’re a good guy, Jasper.”

“I try,” he said.

I paused, thinking for a moment, listening to the noises elsewhere in the building.

I glanced at Landon and Mar.

“I’m a good guy too,” Mar said.

“Stay put,” I said, firm.

“You’re going alone?” Jasper asked.

“Yeah. Just find a corner of the building to hole up in. Hide, be safe.”

There was a balance to be struck. I wanted to think I’d reasoned this through, as much as I could with the time constraint, the enemy no doubt closing in on the capes. It was too risky to bring these guys with.

Going alone.

“Stay,” I said. “Be safe.”

I sprinted off, raising my forcefield for good measure.

I entered the kitchen by another door. Where I’d talked with Fume Hood.

Something exploded overhead.

I looked up.

Vapor, shards of crystal.

A moment later, there were two more small explosions, one after another, in a line.

Crystal clear, Crystalclear.

Not alone, then. I hurried in the direction indicated.

Daybreak 1.5